Greetings to all from the island of Rhodes. We do not have internet access where we are staying so I am at a shop downtown and will try to bring you up to date. There will be no pictures with this edition but we will try to catch up on pictures the next time we have better access to internet.

We were greeted Wednesday with a barbeque in the backyard of Pastor George and Lydia's house. It was wonderful. We spent three hours that evening counseling a young couple who want to get married. They have so few resources and so few good examples here that marriage is a real challenge.

On Thursday, we got to catch up on our rest a little bit because we were staying at an apartment by ourselves and could get around whenever we wanted. After we were ready we walked to George and Lydia's house which is about 2 miles. It felt so good to actually do something physical.

We spent the day there until about 9 PM. In the afternoon we had a wonderful time sharing and praying with George and Lydia about the problems in Greece, especially the cultural behaviors that hinder their walk with God, their parenting and their marriages. They want very much to have teaching and modeling that will help them establish a bibilical pattern for these things. God spoke some wonderful things to us concerning our ministry and it was also very challenging.

We spent two hours with Tassos and Haris who live next door. Haris and Lydia are sisters. Tassos is a painter who has been working for several years on an island in the Ionian Sea on the west coast of Greece. He has not been an evangelist in the past. He has brought one person to the Lord in 25 years, but all of a sudden God began to speak to him about people and began to open up opportunities for him to share. This year he is bringing 9 people to the conference that he has won to the Lord. This is a remarkable feat in this culture. It is a small island and everybody knows everybody else and it caused quite an outburst of anger but now has calmed down and he is teaching these people every week.

When we got back to our apartment, we had to repack because the airlines here only allow one 20 kilogram bag each. We got finished just before 11 PM and got to sleep. George picked us up at 8:20 the next morning and took us to the airport and we flew to Rhodes.

Nikos picked us up and took us to his home where he lives with his wife Thena, son Stefanos, and married son Paniotes and his wife Vera. It is a beautiful home that Nikos built completely on his own. We had dinner and talked about the work of God and then went to service at 8 PM. I preached a message on "This noise was heard." It is an interesting message that God gave me while I was in Germany. I will preach it at home some time. We ate after the service and then collapsed into bed at almost 1 AM. Athena is starting to feel exhausted. Today I will try to get her to rest for most of the day. We want to have more time with Nikos and Thena ministering to them in any area that God will open up. We will have another service tonight and then on Sunday we fly to Heraklion just in time to meet the Pastors John and Elpida and then go to service.

Thank you to all of you who have been praying for us. Continue to hold Athena up in prayer. She is sleeping every night but not really enough to maintain her strength. She gets about four hours a night and needs at least seven.

Thank you so much for your continued prayers for us. We rely on them and the grace of God to lead us daily in His will and purposes for this trip.

On Monday, we flew for 2 1/2 hours to Thessaloniki, Greece, which is in the northeastern part. I (Athena) have never been to this part of Greece. We were picked up by two brothers and taken to the home of Phillip and Baso. There we had a good time of fellowship and prayer. The next day, we had a meeting in their home from about 1:30 to 8:30 in the evening, with a break for dinner at 4. We were with the pastor Minoli and his wife Angeliki. They are the most wonderful, loving and dedicated couple, and they work very hard for the ministry here in Greece, pastoring at least two small churches.

They have many difficulties, some which we do not face in America. We will explain more when we are home. However, the enemy is the same everywhere, and we all fight battles that are similiar. They do not have any help and support like we have. God knitted our hearts together in a very special way, and we were able to pour into them and pray for them, and minister many things from the Word of God. Also in attendance were our hosts, Phillip and Baso, who are like assistants to them in the church. In addition, another pastor, Dimitri, from the island of Thassos came and was our interpreter. He was very touched by God and asked us to minister to him and his wife at the conference. He had been hurt and was not very trustful of church leadership but God is changing that. Todd, who is American, but married to a Greek and has lived there 18 years came also.

One of the most special things with regard to the vision God had given us and Shari was the way Ron and I were able to minister side by side, sharing the teaching and exhortation equally. We found out at the end that this model encouraged them greatly and gave them an example that they desperately need here in Greece. They asked us many questions about marriage and raising children.

On Wednesday, we repacked and got ready for our flight to Athens. We had one small break before we left for the airport and we took a brief walk around the area where we were staying in Thessaloniki. We took some pictures of buildings that date back over 500 years to the time of the Byzantine occupation of Greece. The weather is much warmer here in Greece.

Our flight to Athens arrived at 2:10 and we were picked up by two young brothers from the church and taken to where we will stay for the next two days. We then went to the home of the pastors in Athens, Giorgos and Lydia, and enjoyed a wonderful meal together with a number of the brothers and sisters.

Because we are having to do this from a computer other than my own, we will not be able to make all of the individual blogs with matching pictures. We will include pictures that relate to today's blog and you will have to try to make sense of them.

On Sunday, Werner, Ingrid and Maren took us on a journey to a nearby city called Esslingen. We walked around the old part of this town where most of the buildings are 300-500 years old.

One picture shows a building with a date on it of 1571. They can be renovated, but they cannot ever be torn down and replaced. As you can see, even the cities in Germany have bike shops, so Werner and I had to check out the merchandise from the window as all of the shops are closed on Sunday. We also visited a small private doll museum called Die Blaue Insel. The owner was very sweet and happy that Athena liked dolls and knew so much about them. Athena actually knew more than the lady. The churches were incredible works of architecture and construction. As you can see, they spent a lot of money on material things and that is probably where the loss of spiritual things began. The church pictured is actually Lutheran. I would never have guessed it based on the paintings and interior design which looked more like Catholic. The countryside with vineyards and orchards borders the city and makes a pictuesque backdrop. We finished the tour with lunch at their favorite Italian restaurant called La Gondola Ristorante and Pizzeria. The food was excellent. We spent the rest of the day enjoying Maren and her family. Athena showed and edited pictures and I went on a 1 1/2 hour bike ride with Werner. My body is mostly healed except for my ribs which are still giving me fits. Olaf and Veronica also had a birthday party at the church for their little boy today. Tomorrow we pack everything up and fly to Greece to begin 18 days that are basically nonstop ministry with the exception of one day in Xania, Crete so we appreciate your continued prayers.

We had services on both Friday and Saturday evening at Toni and Maren's church, which is in the basement of their home. They have a special room that the church fixed up and as you can see has some fairly hi-tech equipment in it. They love to worship and their worship times go from 1 to 1 1/2 hours. They sing about half of their songs in English, so we were able to join them part of the time which was nice. I preached both nights and Athena added an exhortation on Saturday night. Our main focus was to help them see how their personal lives, their families and they commitments needed to be in the right place for them to build the church of Jesus according to the pattern of God's Word. They are a good group of people with great potential for the Lord. We trust God is going to bless them with growth both in personal maturity and in numbers of believers.

This is Christof and Doreen. We did prayer counseling with them on Saturday. They are a lovely couple who are very involved in the church. He plays drums, guitar and piano and she is the church bookkeeper. They have no children, but are busy loving all of the other little ones in the church.

This is George and Wasiliki Elpasidis, whom we also prayer counseled on Thursday. They are Greek and will be at the conference in Greece this year so we will be able to follow up with them. He plays the piano, guitar and also sings in their worship group. She did interpretation for me on the Saturday evening service. She speaks seven languages, German, Greek, Italian, Spanish, English, French and Turkish. She also sings with the worship team and they have a darling little one year old daughter.

Thursday was our most intense day so far with over 6 hours of prayer counseling. It was not textbook because with only Athena and me to work with a couple, we would start together and get to know them a little bit and then we would separate and I would work with the man and Athena would work with the woman and then we would bring them back together. When we came back together we would help them mostly with communication by giving them the opportunity to discuss a hot topic with us there to keep them from getting hot and teaching them how to do this without us there. This is Olaf and Veronica Panten with their son who just turned one today. We attended his birthday party this afternoon.

On Tuesday we also prayer counseled Susanne Wolf who is pictured here with Athena. She is married and has a one year old son.

This is Athena and Ingrid Knuele, Maren's mother. We did a prayer counseling session with her on Tuesday. She has been so kind and good to us. She washes and irons our clothes and fixes us meals when Maren is busy with other responsibilities and she also did intercession for us when we were ministering to other people. She also did interpretation for Athena when she was working with a woman who did not speak English well enough to communicate on her own.

On Thursday, we counseled two married couples in Toni and Maren's church, both separately and together. We felt it was a very profitable time and that the Holy Spirit led us. Thank you for your prayers, as we continue to seek to minister truth and encouragement to the people here in Germany. There are many problems, and many things out of God's order. There are few true believers, and they are often persecuted by their families and friends for not being in the Catholic or Lutheran religions. On Friday evening, we ministered to the whole church, which is very small and meets in the basement of Toni and Maren's house. Ron taught them about the two covenants--salvation and marriage.

On Friday, Maren was taking me to a doll (puppen) museum that was supposed to be an hour away from here. But instead, it ended up being a 9 hour adventure that was very difficult, especially for Maren with the toddler Josef and the baby Aimee. Everywhere she went, there were roadblocks and detours, taking us way off course and into country she had never been before. When we finally arrived, it was 3 1/2 hours later. Then we discovered, that the museum was closed--permanently, even though it was currently still advertised on the Internet. It was so disappointing. Now it was cold and raining and there were no bathrooms or restaurants open at this hour (they close from 2-5 or 6). Someone Maren asked for info. let us use their home toilet, and she nursed the baby in the car. By this time, my back was killing me from sitting in the car so long, and Joseff was climbing the walls to get out of his car seat (he is 2 1/2 years old). So the man had told us about an old castle called Sigmarinder Schloss that he said was worth seeing and that it was not far away. We finally found it, and had to park and walk in the rain with both children in a stroller. When we got there, they were ready to begin the last tour of the day and strollers were not allowed. We paid, put the stroller and umbrellas in a room, and carried the baby and stuff. Everyone had to stay on the red carpet, nothing could be touched or photographed, and the tour person was talking in German of course. Can you imagine Maren trying to translate for me, keep Josef quiet--he talks constantly, loudly, and with much expression!, on the red carpet, not running off or touching anything, carrying a 4 month old baby, and going up and down stairways, etc. I realized that I was not young anymore. I also realized that Maren was such a trouper to do all this for me. She is my new hero (after yesterday's trip especially). What a beautiful woman of God. I wish you ladies could meet her--she would inspire and challenge you. She leads worship, plays piano, has written 15-20 worship songs, preaches and teaches and takes care of the church and the people, especially while Toni is gone. She is very hospitable, a great cook, and an awesome wife and mother. I am so glad we are here to support and bless them! Anyway, after the castle the journey back was long and difficult, raining, dark, more roadblocks, crying baby, and very frustrated toddler--and no toilets. We at least got a pita sandwich after the castle. When we arrived back home, Ron was already preaching with Maren's mom doing the translation until Maren arrived.

Meanwhile, Ron had a wonderful, relaxing day, and went on his first bike ride since his accident. He was very pleased to do this again and said it helped him.

This morning, it was cloudy and misty after all the rain. We went for a walk in the nearby forest, and I took nature and landscape pictures this time. I will post of few of both days here, plus one of the couples we counseled.

Wednesday was our sightseeing day with pastors Toni and Maren (and baby Aimee).

We left at 8:15 AM and got back home at 10:30, and special places in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. We went first to the largest waterfalls in Europe. They were Rhein falls at Schuffhausen in Austria. We walked along the river and to different places for views of the falls. It was gorgeous, and I loved the sound of the water. Then we drove to Friedrichshafen in Germany, which was a lovely city on the Lake Konstanz, the largest lake in Europe. We had lunch at a restaurant with organic breads, soups, and salads. They also made their own natural chocolate, which of course we had to try. Then we drove to Switzerland to Bregens, where they was a mountain gondola called Pfander, which went up a mountain to the top where you could see all over the world (it seemed). On one side were the Alps with gorgeous hills and valley and Chalets that looked like a scene from the Heidi movie. The other way looked out over Lake Konstanz and all of the mountains that direction. It was breathtaking! We also saw mountain goats, swine, and European deer. Then we ate dinner back in Germany at an old German restaurant/hotel on Lake Konstanz in the city of Wasserburg. Then we drove back to Wolfschlugen, where Toni and Maren live.

The next morning Toni left for India with pastor Gunther, so we are ministering now each day to couples, and Friday and Saturday evening to the whole church here.

We are all week with Pastors Toni and Maren in Wolfschlugen, Germany. They have a darling 2 year old boy Josef and 4 month old Aimee. I will include a picture of Toni and Aimee. They are wonderful, godly people and hosts. They live in a 200 year old house with her parents, Werner and Ingrid. We had a good prayer counseling session this afternoon with Ingrid (pictured). Werner took us on a one hour walk around the village. We went inside the Lutheran church (pictured). It is still very cold.

We love you. Keep praying. We are beginning another prayer counseling in a few moments.

We traveled by car to the home of Toni and Maren LaPenta in Wolfschlugen, Germany. It was about a four hour drive, part of which was on the Autobahn.

Our driver, Markus, was also the one who intpreted for us in the service that morning in Cham.

We got here in the evening and were able to share a meal with Themis and Nikos before they returned to Greece.

The home we are staying in houses Toni and Maren, their two darling children, and her parents.

Today we are exploring our surroundings on foot, resting, and preparing for our ministry time, which begins tomorrow.